44 is a New Mom Again

44 had her lambs today. It is almost impossible to comprehend but yes, I said today. Not last night or early this morning. She had them this afternoon, we couldn't believe it. Lisa had to pull the second one out, usually with 44 it's the first one that gets stuck.

 All the sheet metal is up. I still have some trim to install and this one is getting a rain gutter.

 Lisa painted the posts. They are the same   gray color as the siding. She is going to touch up the white on the beams and rafters to cover the metal clips and nail heads.

 We put up Lisa's wading pool. The water was a little chilly but we both got in it.

 Flowers. The big ones are lilies.

 In case there was any doubt, we will be having tomatoes. We should have red ones in 2 or 3 weeks.

 There are a lot of green ones.

  We're getting cucumbers now.

 The onions are getting big. We should be pulling them up before too long.

 44's first lamb. She had it out in the pasture behind the old rabbit shed. Lisa got to her just as it was hitting the ground. It had weird yellowish goo on it.

 This is the second one with the normal clear goo. She had it a few minutes after Lisa brought her back to the barn. One of its legs was pointing the wrong direction and Lisa went in after it. She found the leg but I think she dropped her flashlight on the way back out.

 Lulu nursing her lambs. Seems normal, right? That's what ewes do. Lulu seems not to care whether they nurse or not. She'll wander off down the hill and leave the lambs in the barn. We're hoping she catches on.

 Paige.

Like a Chicken, Only Smaller

The banty roosters started pestering the laying hens which annoyed Darryl. Since it is Darryl's barnyard and he is responsible for the welfare of the hens, he put in a request to have them killed. So we ate them.

 One normal size chicken usually goes in this pan.

 With stuffing and gravy!

 We each had one. The third one will be good for lunch. We gave them longer in the refrigerator this time, it made a difference. They were tender and juicy.

 We picked up the replacement metal today and I got six pieces put up. The top is "clay" and the underside is white.

 I like the 2x4 purlins much better than the 1x4s I used in the first carport. Painting the wood in advance is a lot better too.

 It was hot up there today.

 Puppy Paige.

Lamb Week 2013

Lambing is in full swing. We have nine new lambs so far.

 We've been working on the carport too. I got the framing done, now it's all metal. We have to take the sheet metal back because they measured it wrong. We'll get started on the roof tomorrow.

 Lulu had two. A boy and a girl.

 Darcy had one out in the pasture. She is the one that swam through the water tank to get to Duane. I guess we didn't get her back downhill fast enough. She's is just now a year old, the little hussy.

 One of Lulu's.


 We have the stalls separated into lambing pens.

 The older babies are bouncing and playing. Video by request.

 Paige.

More Lambs

Libby had her lamb. Her udder is really small so we weren't expecting her to go next.

 She had some trouble at first figuring out what that thing was. It seemed like she was afraid of it. Lisa had to hold her while I put the lamb on her teat.

 She finally got the hang of it and is doing much better. It's a boy.

 Update on Bootsie. She's getting big.

 Molly finally had hers. The chicken thought Molly's hay tub was a nifty nesting box.

 It's a girl!

 Molly had three but only one survived. She was in distress this morning after having the first one alive, so we took her to the vet. He was able to reposition them and got them out but they were dead. They were also huge, each was about twice the size of the little girl.

 Samantha's lamb update. They are fine looking little lambs.

 Bess's boy. It's fun watching all the little ones racing around the barnyard.

 Paige...Paige...Paige...Paige...Paige...Paige. If she doesn't move she thinks we can't see her.

Carport Work and Strawberries

We've got some work done on the new carport. We ordered the metal today for the roof. Hopefully we'll have at least part of it up this weekend.

 The strawberries are good. We're getting some every day still. Eating them too!

 I trimmed off the tops of the posts with the chainsaw.

 I notched the tops to receive the 2x6 beam. I didn't use the chainsaw for that, I used the circular saw. Lisa sanded the posts and painted the beams and rafters. Painting is easier on the ground using saw horses.

 Metal joist hangers for the rafters.

 We got them all put up. Piper was being a construction dog.

 Flowers.

 All the rafters. Paris wouldn't stop doing that so I took the picture anyway.

 Hurricane clips on both sides of each rafter. I started putting up the purlins today.

 Hi Paige.

 Paige.

Strawberries

 We got the other two posts in for the carport. We didn't work on it yesterday because I mowed the last two pastures. I wanted to get the mowing done before all the rain we were supposed to get today. We only got about one tenth of an inch. Everything is mowed now so I disconnected the bush hog and washed the tractor.

 We've been getting at least a bowl of strawberries like this every day. We're having them for breakfast and dessert.

 We got the ledger board up too. I still have some lag bolts to put in it. This is my view of the ledger board from the ladder.

 This is the ledger board's view of me.

 Piper.

 Paige.

Another Carport

We started working on the next carport this weekend. We probably won't be parking cars under this one either.

 A nice sunset while I was cooking steaks on the grill.

 The lumber for the carport.

 It's been dry so we had to fill the holes with water to loosen the clay.

 Lis was collecting grass clippings to use in the garden for mulch.

 She mulches the rows to help keep down the weeds.

 The two corner posts are in. We'll let the concrete harden before doing the other posts. You can also see where I've been getting the side ready for the ledger board.

  We have plumb.

 It was supposed to rain today but we didn't get a drop. It was mostly cloudy and cooler, around 80 for the high.

 We put up the cattle panel for the tomatoes. They're getting bigger and blooming.

  We got a bunch of volunteers. We saved the ones on the end where the good tomatoes were.

 One of the bigger volunteer tomatoes in the onion row. We figured thats a good place. We'll be pulling the onions before it gets too big.

 Paige.